Bashir barred from leaving SA shores

Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir was ordered to remain in South Africa pending the finalisation of an application for the South
African government to arrest him, the high court in Pretoria ruled on
Sunday.

Judge Hans Fabricius ordered that al-Bashir be prohibited from
leaving South Africa, and that the department of home affairs ensure the
order is sent to every port of entry and exit in South Africa.

He ordered that there be proof of service of the order and the identity of each person it is served on.
This
varied to an order he handed down earlier, after the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) said home affairs officials at OR Tambo
International Airport had refused to accept his order that al-Bashir
not leave until the case had been heard.

The case was postponed to
11:30am on Monday to give the government more time to prepare. Their
papers are to filed with Fabricius by 9am.

Al-Bashir
is attending the African Union Summit in Johannesburg.
The SALC wants
him arrested in terms of two warrants issued by the International Criminal
Court on allegations of war crimes and genocide in Darfur.

ICC ‘no longer useful’

Meanwhile, the ANC urged the government to defend its decision to allow al-Bashir to visit South Africa.

“The national executive committee of the African National Congress
holds a view that the International Criminal Court is no longer
useful for the purposes for which it was intended—being a court of
last resort for the prosecution of crimes against humanity,” the ruling party said in a statement.

“The fact that compliance with the prescripts of the International
Criminal Court is voluntary and countries can choose whether to be a
signatory or not, means that gross human violations committed by
non-signatory countries go unpunished. Countries, mainly in Africa and
Eastern Europe, who due to their unwavering commitment to upholding
human rights and universal justice, have elected to be signatories to
the ICC, continue to unjustifiably bear the brunt of the decisions of the
ICC with Sudan being the latest example.”

The party called for a review of the statutes of the ICC “to compel all
member states of the United Nations to be signatories to the Rome
Statute to ensure that the ICC is able to act in accordance with the
function for which it was intended - a fair and independent court for
universal and equitable justice”.

The ANC reiterated government’s position that allowing al-Bashir to
attend the AU summit was correct because “government gazetted the
meeting of the AU for immunity for all participants as part of the
international norms for countries hosting such gathering of the AU or
even the United Nations”.